Posted on 12/26/2011 3:46:18 PM PST by Eleutheria5
It sounds like one of those diseases that should have been wiped out long ago, but malaria, unfortunately, is alive and well, especially in Africa and other tropical, third world locations. Battling malaria is complicated for numerous reasons, among them the difficulty of creating drugs to battle the disease. Now, however, Hebrew University researchers have come up with a novel method of producing the medicine that can treat malaria – using common, everyday tobacco plants.
Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via mosquitoes. Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs. Over 3 billion people are at risk of malaria. Every year, this leads to about 250 million malaria cases and nearly one million deaths. People living in the poorest countries are the most vulnerable. Malaria is especially a serious problem in Africa, where 20% of childhood deaths are due to the effects of the disease and every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria.
The main source of anti-Malarial drugs is based on a substance called artemisinin, a natural compound from Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) plants, which is difficult to synthesize and expensive to obtain. Scientists have tried hard to artificially synthesize this substance, but despite extensive efforts invested in the last decade in metabolic engineering of the drug in both microbial and heterologous plant systems, production of artemisinin itself has never been achieved.
Now, Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University., the technology transfer arm of the University, introduces a novel method allowing artemisinin production in a heterologous (that is, other than A. annua) plant system, such as tobacco. The method was developed by....
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Perhaps I just ought to sit back a while and let reality take its course.
My mom had several cousins and brothers that died of lunch cancer. One female cousin never smoked, however.
My FIL died at 94 and had been a smoker all his life.
My husband is nearly 77 and a smoker and is on no drugs and going strong. I'm past the stage of nagging him as it does no good. The worst part of the habit is it is expensive and he is not allowed to smoke in the house.
Let’s not forget the therapeutic benefits of asbestos insulation. It helps prevent the cancer caused by cellular phones, protected sex, and Internet surfing.
The tobacco plants are genetically engineered to produce the antimalarial drug. The plants are then processed to extract the drug for delivery as a medicine. Smoking the tobacco would not provide any benefit.
We used to work in the fields at my grandfathers farm in south Georgia when I was in high school and college. We used to smoke cheap cigars to keep the mosquitos away. Worked for us.
Now if they put the anti-malarial drug in a condom, they’d kill half a dozen issues at once...
Welcome to Free Republic.
I’ve picked corn, pulled peanuts, and cut collards in my younger years.
Elvis is not dead, he just went home...(Men In Black)
My fave being “Don’t be Cruel” from 1956.
I find it hard to believe that there aren’t some benefits to smoking. They never mention any good side effects from tobacco. There must be some.
Sort of a Beechnut Boil? Ummmm!
It does take practice to hit the mosquito and not the shirt.
The best I’ve ever seen could hit a 1 lb. coffee can from several feet away. And that was a woman.
On the otherhand:
We could start producing cheap DDT again..
DDT murders mosquitoes en masse.. every mudhole and pond should get it..
Spaying every hut, sleeping area, shed, pig pen, horse corral, should be dosed..
Not only does this fight malaria, but it also fights liberals. At least those venturing to malarial areas. Are they going to take a drug derived from genetically engineered tobacco or are they going to trust to their self-perceived superiority to protect them? They’d as soon use DDT.
My younger sister had an asthma attack at 2 weeks of age in 1957.
The wise 70-year-old GP who delivered her told my father to periodically fog her with cigarette smoke.
That turned out to be her first and last asthma attack.
The man do have a point there.
There are benefits to smoking.
I am a former smoker.
Smoking calmed people by forcing them to take a break and practice deep breathing techniques while the chemicals in the cigaretter relaxed them.
Smoking also kept people slimmer, although no one mentions that the obesity has increased in adults as smoking decreased.
Stopping smoking usually leads to decrease in thyroid function and need to supplimentation.
Nicotine is a pesticide for certain vermin. So that might make sense.
You also have to be careful of what’s behind the mosquito, so you don’t spray somebody’s face. This can be especially dangerous at truck stops and biker bars, which also cause malaria because you can’t spit freely.
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